Unraid server

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UraharaUlquiorra
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Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2016 7:43 pm
Country: South Africa
Firstname: Alano

Unraid server

Postby UraharaUlquiorra » Mon Sep 26, 2016 4:13 am

What is Unraid?
Unraid is virtualization software such as vmware, but it has a lot more functionality.
Here is their homepage: https://lime-technology.com/virtualization-host/

What is this post about?
My trials with virtualization and how it can help you in the future (maybe).

What you need
"To run virtual machines on your system, you must have HVM (hardware-assisted virtualization) support on your processor/motherboard (Intel VT-x / AMD-V). If you wish to assign host-based PCI devices (such as graphics and sound) to your VMs, your CPU and motherboard must also support IOMMU (Intel VT-d / AMD-Vi). To determine if a particular processor has support for HVM or IOMMU" -LimeTech
https://lime-technology.com/hardware-requirements/

At least 2 hard drives if you don't want any parity protection for your data. SSD's are always set to cache from what I have researched.

Also some glasses and a nice hot cup of tea as this post is a long one.

My story:
So I bet after you visited their page you saw a post on their blog about Linus tech tips using their software to make two people use one pc at the same time, as if it were their own pc.
The video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuJYMCbIbPk
They later updated to this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXOaCkbt4lI

Over the past week I have played around with it and thought I would set up a server for my friend and I to play on as he does not have a pc that he could bring to the LAN. So I began researching, initially with the idea of setting up the Unraid server so that he can play off of my onboard intel gpu and I playing on my GTX950. I am somewhat of a budget gamer so I only have one graphics card.
Here is my setup:
    CPU: i7 6700k
    GPU: GTX950
    RAM: 8GB 2400ghz ddr4
    Motherboard: Z170A GAMING M7
    HDD: 120GB Sandisk SSD
    HDD 2: 750GB 2.5" 5400rpm
    PSU: 650W

Attempt 1:
I booted Unraid off of a 4GB memory stick and began fiddling around with it. First thing I had to do was set up the server on the same network as my laptop so that I can access the web console which wasn't too hard as when you boot it up connected to a screen, you will see a display with the IP address of the server displaying (you can also type http://tower or http://tower.local). Now if you are not familiar with Linux then it's not too bad as the server has a web console that you can work off of with a nice GUI.

With the server up and running and accessed from the console I began the set up. I then continued to follow Linus's video (CARE: SELECTING A HARD DRIVE TO USE IN YOUR ARRAY WILL FORMAT IT IF YOU WANT TO USE IT). I learned this the hard way (as I was doing this 2am without much sleep the previous night) by formatting my hard drive with my OS and all my stuff on it. Luckily for me everything was saved on Google drive and with fast internet from the university I was not in a panic frenzy.

Some hours later (after a LOT) of googling I found out that UNRAID does NOT SUPPORT IGD (Integrated Graphics Devices), although they are working on adding support for this. This was a pretty big disappointment as I had no other means of getting another GPU in the time span of 2 days. So I scraped the Unraid idea and started researching alternatives. I found out that Unraid is but one of many in the search for a good Bare-metal Virtualization software. Some of them being Xen server and ESXI.

Attempt 2:
Here is their website: (you need an account to download it though)
http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere-hypervisor.html
I tried haven't really tried ESXI as I found out before trying it that it won't support IGD pass-through so I scrapped the idea from the get go.
Also if I remember correctly it has network driver support issues.

Attempt 3
Here is their websites:
Xen server: http://xenserver.org/

I quickly formatted my USB and made a bootable flash of XEN server. My first attempts were unsuccessful at getting XEN to boot off of the flash as there was no official support to make it bootable and as I was running all my machines off of Linux Opensuse, there was even less indication of why it didn't work. I then asked my friend (windows user) to try format the USB using Universal USB installer. It for some reason booted after this and I was pretty happy as I read that XEN server supports IGD as a secondary GPU. Once in the installer I found out that it did not support my network device (Gigabit 1Gbit E2400 using Atheros drivers). Beware if you do have an Atheros device XEN server as well as ESXI will not work. You might be lucky with your ethernet device, but no guarantees. Also if you are running off of an Intel ethernet device then you should be fine.

Some other advice:
You can (if brave enough) compile your devices drivers using Xens' software. But its a big hassle and will probably keep you busy for hours with no luck of getting the server up and running.

Attempt 4
I messaged a friend on LAN day and asked him to bring me an old graphics card, something that can a tleast launch a game. He brought me a HD7750 which was rather decent and as it was separate instances of OS's busy running Nvidia and AMD would not clash.
I the started up my Unraid server, in attempt to use the gpu's. At first I was getting errors as Unraid was grouping the AMD card with other devices (which in Unraid terms means you can't pass it through to a virtual machine). I quickly found out that some motherboards group devices together and that you can set it in Unraid. "You have to turn on PCIe ACS Override in Settings --> VM Manager.
After you enable the setting you have to reboot your server." (saarg)
Original post: (http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=42097.0).

To copy over the ISO of the selected OS you can just copy it through your file browser to the server in the ISOs directory.
Also if your browser is giving you trouble and you need to restart the server, don't just plug it out as this can corrupt your array. Rather go to your server and login as root user (usually the password is just blank). Then type "reboot" and it will shut down the array for you.

After this I got it to boot 2 separate instances of Opensuse. Now I know you are asking, but this is for a LAN, gaming is not going to work on Opensuse or any other Linux distro. Here is where I say you can and some massive steam games even supports it such as CS:GO, Borderlands, Dota2, ect. Basically you can run (almost) every DX9 game on Linux using wine of course. Enough of that and on to the Unraid server.

The RAM allocations I made were 4GB to each server, which gave me some errors as I had forgotten that it takes resources from the Unraid server to actually virtualize another OS. So give a good enough amount for your Unraid server to also use, like 2GB or more. I then proceeded to decrease the amount of RAM given to each Linux server to 1.5GB as Unraid was just destroying the rest of it. I am not sure if there was a memory leak though as when I started an install of Opensuse I realised the amount of RAM used would just go up from 50% to 99% and then crash my vm, only running 1 VM. I am sure there was something I did wrong or maybe I should just accept that 8GB of RAM just isn't enough.

I gave up at this point as I couldn't increase my RAM on the fly and having spent so many hours on Unraid I was just sick of it. So maybe you have learned something from my article and can avoid having to struggle through setting up Unraid as I have.

Some useful tips:
1)You can format the drives again by clicking on the header next to the drive usually saying "drive 1" or "drive 2" and then it will open another view where you now need to set another format for the drive. (Note the array needs to be off for this to work) Then start up the array again and it will show next to your drive "Unallocated space" or something like that. Now select Format the selected drives next to the start array button.

2) Starting the Unraid server requires internet connection for it to activate your key (30 day trial vers available). Ensure to register your account to a valid email address as it will send you your key there.

3) Use a really old gpu or onboard gpu as the unraid server's display. You can also set it up headless (no screen attached), but it is not recommended as a first boot.

4) Don't stress about the server displaying something about Bad blocks. Apparently it's an annoying bug that fills up the unraid servers terminal which makes it extremely hard to type.

5) You can use a flash drive to copy the iso over to the server. If you know a bit of terminal commands it should be easy for you to do.
Here are some instructions if you are not familiar with it:
Mount your USB drive.
https://linuxconfig.org/howto-mount-usb-drive-in-linux
# fdisk -l
# mkdir /run/mount/usb
# mount /dev/[your usb name] /run/mount/usb

Now you have mounted the usb. Next is to copy it to the file
# cp /run/mount/usb/(press tab to select things faster) /where ever the ISOS folder is located.

it will take a while and might not give an indication of when it is done. Just wait for the "root@linux:" appears

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Sorry for the long post here is an obvious potato picture:Image

Peace,
Alano (Benehiko)
Summoner Name: Arki Benehiko
:D
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